GENEVA Fighting around Syria’s capital Damascus has cut 300,000 people off from humanitarian aid and pauses in the fighting are needed to let aid convoys in, Jan Egeland, U.N. humanitarian advisor on Syria, said in an interview on Thursday. “They are totally dependent on our supplies. Starvation will be just around the corner unless we get there in the coming weeks,” Egeland told Reuters after chairing the […]
Last week, a colleague received the printer’s proofs for an article that she submitted two years ago. You read that correctly. In the time that it takes to earn a master’s degree, she managed to navigate the labyrinth of academic peer review in order to publish one essay. It’s a success story, if you can maintain your sense of humor. Journal publishing in the humanities […]
PARIS Anglo American’s (AAL.L) diamond specialist De Beers has bought the 50 percent stake held by French luxury goods group LVMH (LVMH.PA) in De Beers Diamond Jewellers for an undisclosed sum, taking full ownership of the retail operation. Analysts said the joint venture no longer fitted LVMH’s strategy, while Anglo American, which has long dominated global rough diamond sales, has been developing its presence on the high-margin […]
President Donald Trump has given more than he promised to space agency NASA. On Tuesday, March 21, he signed an advisory bill and authorized funding of $19.5 billion to NASA. Initially, President Trump had proposed funding of $19.1 billion, but for reasons best known to him, he upped the amount by $4 billion. This is the first of its kind authorization bill that has been given to […]
LONDON Britain’s Queen Elizabeth sent her condolences on Thursday to those affected by the attack on the British parliament conducted by a lone assailant who killed three people and injured 40. “My thoughts, prayers, and deepest sympathy are with all those who have been affected by yesterday’s awful violence,” she said in a statement. The Queen was due to officially open the new headquarters of London’s police […]
The man who killed three people and injured at least 40 in the terror attack on Westminster was British born and has previously been investigated by MI5, Theresa May said on Thursday. Although the attacker, who was fatally shot by police, was known to the domestic security service, it is believed he acted alone and was “not part of the current intelligence picture”, the prime minister said. […]
The optimistic but eerie calm that had settled over the US stock market since the US election ended abruptly this week, as the longest streak of trading days without a 1 per cent decline in more than two decades finally snapped. Equities clawed back some of their losses on Wednesday but investors remain on edge. The post-election stock market rally has been largely powered by hopes the […]
By Tommy Wilkes and Ismail Sameem | KABUL/KANDAHAR, Afghanistan KABUL/KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Afghanistan’s progress in educating its children is under threat, as growing insecurity and corruption shut more schools and reduced international funding undermines a system struggling to cope. Rising school attendance, up from fewer than a million when the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 to more than seven million today, has been held up as […]
Imagine that The New York Times, The Washington Post and PBS launched a joint fact-checking project. That is, roughly speaking, what happened in Norway earlier this week. VG and Dagbladet, Norway’s two largest online news sources by readership, joined forces with NRK, the public broadcaster, to launch Faktisk. The initiative, a team of at least five journalists led by investigative reporter Kristoffer Egeberg, will start publishing by June […]
ANKARA Turkey summoned the Russian charge d’affaires to convey its unease after a Turkish soldier was killed by sniper fire from a part of Kurdish-held Syria where Russian forces are active, Turkey’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday. The Turkish military fired into the northwestern Syrian border region of Afrin on Wednesday, an area contolled by the Kurdish YPG militia, after the soldier was killed by cross-border […]
Fans of “Shark Tank” might recall a recent episode in which a startup company called Sand Cloud won a deal with shark Robert Herjavec. The company’s business success to date–which helped it land the deal on the show–stems largely from how its technology strategy aligns with its target audience of millennials, according to co-founder Brandon Leibel. “Embracing technology helped us to grow enough to get on Shark […]
Credit: American Chemical Society There’s a reason why farmers wear protective gear when applying organophosphate pesticides. The substances are very effective at getting rid of unwanted bugs, but they can also make people sick. Related compounds—organophosphate nerve agents—can be used as deadly weapons. Now researchers have developed a fast way to detect the presence of such compounds in the field using a disposable “lab-on-a-glove.” The report on […]
Finance Ministry officials disclosed results of the first part of an investigation that found 120 Costa Rican companies and corporations linked to cases in the so-called Panama Papers. Ministry and Tax Administration officials have found 79 companies and 41 corporations from the real estate, agricultural, commercial, legal and consultant sectors in the documents so far. Of these, the Ministry has fully identified a total of 69, and the remaining 51 are still […]
BEIRUT The Syrian army and rebels, including jihadist groups, fought in the capital Damascus and north of Hama on Thursday after the insurgents’ biggest offensive for months, underscoring the bleak prospects for peace talks which resume later in the day. The offensive seems unlikely to reverse 18 months of steady military gains by the government, culminating in December’s capture of the rebel enclave in Aleppo, but it […]
UAE, March 23, 2017 – Drake & Scull International PJSC (“DSI” or the “Company”), a regional engineering and services leader, signed today the sale deal of its ownership share in the ONE PALM development in Dubai. The ONE PALM development, a joint venture project between Omniyat Properties and DSI, was launched in 2014. The flagship project is located on the left trunk of Palm Jumeirah and is […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices recovered on Thursday from losses chalked up the session before, but the market remained under pressure as bloated U.S. crude inventories and rising output dampen OPEC-led efforts to curb global production. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil, were at $50.82 per barrel at 0807 GMT, up 18 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close. That came […]
By Estelle Shirbon | LONDON LONDON British counter-terrorism police were investigating the background of an attacker who killed four people and injured about 40 before being shot to death by police just outside the British parliament in London. Police have described the attack on Wednesday as a “marauding terrorist incident” and said they were working on the assumption that it was “Islamist-related”. Police believe they know the […]
It is officially Lü Siqing’s year. “2017 is the Year of the Rooster,” says the celebrated violinist, proudly pointing at the Chinese calendar. Some might argue that the 48-year-old’s “year” could also be described as 1987, the year Siqing reached international prominence as the first Asian winner of the Paganini Competition – a global contest held in honour of the late Italian virtuoso Niccolò Paganini. Such an […]
The legendary Breitling DC-3 aeroplane has landed in Dubai as part of its record-breaking world tour. This historic aircraft, which is aiming to become the oldest plane to circumnavigate the globe, arrived at Jetex FBO Terminal, Dubai World Central on Tuesday (21st March) ahead of the next leg of the trip which will take it to Karachi, Pakistan. Having crossed the Gulf from Qatar, flying low over […]
Newfound volatility and jitters ahead of a key healthcare vote in Washington have sapped enthusiasm for corporate bonds, forcing several companies to pay up to borrow through debt capital markets and sending others to the sidelines to await market calm. Goldman Sachs and Santander were forced to offer more attractive new issue premiums to draw investors amid the subdued market conditions, as several recent bond offerings sold […]
By Nick Kounis of ABN Amro Euro Rates Watch – Will the TLTRO spark carry trades? The last of the ECB’s TLTRO-II operations is expected to have a big take up, with the market expecting EUR 125bn, and some forecasts as high as EUR 300bn From a rates perspective, what matters is whether these funds will trigger flows into the bond or swap markets as banks set […]
The New South Wales government has announced the appointment of Dr Maria Milosavljevic as the state’s inaugural government chief information security officer (GCISO). Milosavljevic will leave her current role as the chief innovation officer and chief information security officer at AUSTRAC — Australia’s financial intelligence agency — to take up the new gig with the NSW government, where she will work with industry, all levels of government, […]
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses light to get two-dimensional (2-D) plastic sheets to curve into three-dimensional (3-D) structures, such as spheres, tubes or bowls. The advance builds on earlier work by the same research team, which focused on self-folding 3-D structures. The key advance here is that rather than having the plastic fold along sharp lines — into polygonal shapes […]
DUBAI A ban on most carry-on electronics on flights to the United States will not significantly affect passenger numbers at Dubai International, where flights depart to 12 U.S. cities daily, the airport’s chief executive said on Thursday. The U.S. announced on Tuesday new restrictions on flights from airports in eight Muslim-majority countries, including the United Arab Emirates, affecting international airline Emirates which flies from Dubai. The restrictions […]
